Term 3 - Week 1, 2021

Principal's Message

Dear Parents,

I trust you enjoyed the school holidays and were able to have some down time with your children. It is always great to see the children come back to school refreshed, energised and ready to learn. 

During the holidays, we launched our Facebook page. I encourage you to visit it and view our posts to see what we get up to on a day to day basis. There is a funny blooper clip of my attempt to create the welcome message; this is displayed in the comments section of the welcome clip. I never knew creating content would take so many attempts.

Last Friday, we took delivery of a Beale Grand Piano from the Bellingen Memorial Hall. This organisation was looking to give away the piano to a school in a local area. We were the lucky recipients. The piano is currently stored in our library. We are going to organise for it to be restored so it will be a valuable asset for our school in the years to come. We acknowledge and thank the Bellingen Memorial Hall for this generous donation and look forward to seeing our instrumental students performing on this in the near future. 

Finally, COVID restrictions are back in place for us at a school level. I thank parents for their understanding and support this week as you are no longer permitted on site. We will set up a Zoom link for our assembly on Monday. The assembly will be led by the Stage 3 students, we hope you can join us via Zoom for this assembly at 2:45pm.

Regards,

Nathan Trezise

Principal  

Grand Piano

Cricket!

Students have enjoying cricket tutorials with local cricket legend, Justin Gilbert! Cricket will continue throughout Term 3.

Parent Teacher Interviews next week

A reminder to book your parent/ teacher interview for next week, if you haven't already done so. Interviews can be held over the phone or via Zoom. Please contact the school to book your time.

Road Safety Information for Parents

School Zone Information

The speed limit for travelling into our school for drop off and pick up of students is 40km/hour. Please watch the clip below to learn more about 40km/hour zones around our school and when they are enforceable.

Visitor Parking

Please enter and exit the car park with extreme caution and care. Also be aware of children and parents walking to cars already parked. Children being picked up will wait near the school entrance. Parents/guardians are asked to walk over and collect their children from the waiting area and not call children down to their cars. No vehicle is to enter the school playground without permission from the principal or senior teacher. Please note that no child is to be unsupervised in the car park. When parking for after-school pick-up, the first car in should park rear to the old cement wall nearest the school. Other cars should then fill the back row (rear to wall) before beginning to fill the front row. If the car park is full, parents can drive around into the pick-up and drop-off area and wait for their child to come out. This is not an overtaking area; parents will need to wait until the car in front of them has moved off before they move on.

Bikes, Skateboards & Scooters

Children riding to school must remember that wearing a helmet is compulsory and an adult must accompany younger students as required by law. Children must dismount and walk their bikes or scooters into and out of the school car park. Bikes are to be stored in the bike rack. Students who choose to ride to school must complete the bike checklist stated in our Road Safety policy. This is a joint task undertaken with parents to ensure student safety.

For further infomation please review our school website on the address listed below.

Craft Request

Mrs Darby is asking for donations of clean, empty plastic 1-litre soft drink or cordial bottles for art and craft. Please drop the bottles off at the front office.

Big School Experience

During term 3, we will be welcoming our local pre-school children to join in experiencing 'big school'! We can't wait to show them around and welcome them into our school community.  These sessions are open to any child who will be starting Kindergarten in 2022.

NAIDOC Colouring-in Competition

Congratulations to the following students, who were the winners of our NAIDOC colouring-in competition last term:

Kinder: 1st - Aurora; 2nd - Keira; 3rd - Abby

Stage 1: 1st - Xavier; 2nd - Eden; 3rd - Jules

Stage 2: 1st - Jordan; 2nd - Mia G; 3rd - Kyrin

Stage 3: 1st - Lacey; 2nd - Shyla; 3rd - Harry C

Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal

We are gathering donations again this year for our Winter Appeal. Please help us if you can. We need toiletries (soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, moisturizer, deodorant, toothbrushes), scarves, beanies, blankets, jumpers, socks etc. Whatever you have to spare would make a real difference to someone in need.

Thank you for your generous support.

The Mini Vinnies Group

New School Facebook!

We have launched our new school Facebook page! It has been wonderful to be able to share the good news of our school with our families and community. 

Mathematics Games Video Tutorials

Each week, students are encouraged to play some mathematics games at home to help support their learning at school. Our classroom teachers take students through the homework tasks and to assist families to play at home, we are including a video tutorial in the newsletter. 

Kindergarten - Mathematics Games (see video below)

Stage 1 - Mathematics Games (see video below)

Five More (less) bingo

Students create their own bingo board by dividing the board into 9 equal rectangles and writing a numeral between 5-100 in each rectangle.

The leader draws a number between and 100. If a player has the number five more than this number on the card, this number is covered with a counter. The player then explains why the number can be covered. When a player completes a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row, BINGO is called and that player is the winner. 

To make this easier, play 2 more bingo. To make it more challenging, play 7 or 8 more bingo.

The game can be repeated by playing five less.

Stage 2 - Mathematics Games (see video below)

Three in a thousand number line challenge

What you will need:

• 0-9 Cards or dice

• Big sheet of paper

• Markers

Draw a long empty number line on the page. The aim of this game is to be the person to place a third number within one century on the number line e.g. from 1000 to 1999. Players shuffle a set of 0-9 cards (or use a dice) and select 4 cards from the back. These four cards form a 4 digit number which is then placed on the number line. This continues until there are three 4 digit numbers within the same thousand.

 The person who puts the third 4 digit number in the same thousand wins!

Challenge: If you’d like to challenge yourself you can add another card to make a 5 digit number!

Stage 3 - Mathematics Games (see video below)

2021 Premier's Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely. The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 9, in government, independent, Catholic and home schools. You must read a certain number of books to complete the Challenge. The Challenge closes for students on Friday August 20, 2021.

Congratulations to the following students, who have completed this year's Premier's Reading Challenge:

Aurora, Evelyn, Lily, Adaline, Jordan, Mia G, Hunter.

Parent Assembly Recruitment

Library Day - Wednesday

Library day for all students is Wednesday - please make sure your child brings in his or her cloth library bag on this day. Each student may borrow four books per week. 

Canteen

If anyone is available to volunteer in our canteen one or more Fridays per term, please contact our canteen co-ordinator Alicia on 0488 280683. If we have no volunteers available we will have to cancel canteen for that week.

A reminder to place your canteen order before Thursday night each week.

Please note - if you top up your canteen account via bank transfer, the funds will take a week to clear so you will not be able to order canteen immediately. 

Please send your lunch wallets into school and we will keep them here.

School Bus Travel

Applications for student travel can now be made online. Apply here 

School Drive Subsidy

The School Drive Subsidy is available for eligible school students where there is no public transport available for all or part of the journey. If you have to drive your child more than 1.6km to a school bus stop, you may be eligible for this subsidy – go to the link below to apply. 

Instrumental Music With Hazel

We have music tutor available to teach instrumental music through private tuition. Hazel Buchanan is interested in working with our students. Hazel can teach:

- flute

- clarinet

- saxophone

- oboe

- bassoon

- trumpet

- trombone

- percussion

- bass guitar

The school owns a flute and a clarinet, which are available for families to borrow long-term at no cost. The payments for lessons are billed each term and paid directly to Hazel. An Essential Element Band Book will be supplied by the school too.

Students wishing to learn these instruments can do so in individual lessons or in small groups depending on the instrument chosen. It is hoped that one day, we can start a small ensemble or band for instrumental students to play together. 

If you are interested in taking up this opportunity, please contact Hazel directly on 0458 572 525.

Lessons will take place on Fridays. 

Term 2 School Fees

SCHOOL FEES: Term 2 fees are now due, unless you are paying by regular direct deposit amounts. 

Several payment methods are available; 

• Regular direct deposit payments (see suggested amounts below).
• Lump sum direct deposit
• Cash
• Cheque

If you are planning to set up regular direct deposit school fee payments for the 2021 school year, following are instructions on how to do this: 

Suggested direct deposit amounts (from beginning of February 2021)

1 student - Term 2 - $276.00

       $46.16 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $23.08 per week (x 50 weeks)

2 students - Term 2 - $483.00

       $81.28 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $40.64 per week (x 50 weeks)

3 or more students  - Term 2 – $621.00

       $105.36 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $52.68 per week (x 50 weeks)

If you would like to arrange a regular direct debit payment from your Bananacoast Credit Union account into the school’s account, the BCU Credit Union in Dorrigo will organize this for you.

When using Internet banking, please use your child’s surname as a reference.

Bananacoast Community Credit Union   BSB no. 533-000

Account no. 3282 0430                 Name: Mt St John’s Primary School

School Fee Relief for familes impacted by the March floods

Due to the financial strain the March 2021 flooding may have had on some families, the Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Ltd has announced they will waive 2021 school fees for recipients of any Australian Government financial assistance in relation to the March 2021 floods, including either the:

• Disaster Recovery Payment (property damage)
• Disaster Recovery Allowance (loss of income)

If you would like to apply for a fee waiver for 2021, please contact the school, providing correspondence from Centrelink demonstrating receipt of disaster recovery payment or allowance.

GLUE

GLUE: "God Loves Us Eternally" (formerly GFS) is on each Wednesday from 3-5pm at the Anglican Hall. Afternoon tea, games, fun worship and craft. All primary kids welcome, as are newcomers. For more info, ring Gwenneth on 6657 2135. COVID-safe practices will apply.

Messy Church

After-School Lego @ Dorrigo Library

Nutrition Snippet